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Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

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Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#21
post #15

It's a bit insane to me that Apple felt the need to "apologize"... so they made a crappy AD that didn't appeal to some audiences... is this really grounds for retractions/apologies these days?

It didn’t just not appeal to some audiences. It actively alienated one of the primary audiences of their product. Of course that requires a response.

And alienated them in a very very primal way. Artisans love their trade tools.

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#24

I thought the ad was great but to actually have to apologize for it ?? I am a self admitted Apple fanboy but while I don’t see eye to eye on this I really don’t see the offensiveness . But in the grand scheme of things it might sell more iPads due to the Streisand effect.

A lot of people have strong emotional connections to their artistic tools like instruments. It's a very common reaction to feel discomfort at the sight of an instrument being destroyed. Emotional attachments are irrational, but the point of an advertisement isn't to be rational otherwise they'd just show a spec sheet as a still in a video.

Apple really fucked up here. Did no one on their marketing team bring this up?

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#25
When I was younger, I used to believe that the antiquated image of the hipster or upper-class white Starbucks artist who owns a Mac was a cliché, an invention of the boomers. But as I have had to deal with some creative teams.

I have come to loathe and disdain this kind of person I did not think even existed a decade ago. The sad truth is that a lot of people of a certain demographic will prefer to die before even switching to Windows, let alone Linux or something open. And sadly, a small part of the tech world is the same; they think that their experience with Windows and Android more than a decade ago is reflective of how they work now. Thus, Apple could spit on their faces, and yet they will still like it. Sadly, nothing to do with people who just suck up to modern Apple.

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#26

Uh what’s the problem? The ad isn’t great, but why the pitchforks?

A lot of people have strong emotional connections to their artistic tools like instruments. It's a very common reaction to feel discomfort at the sight of an instrument being destroyed. Emotional attachments are irrational, but the point of an advertisement isn't to be rational otherwise they'd just show a spec sheet as a still in a video.

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#27
Aside from the destruction of low-tech artistic tools triggering non-tech people aspect, tonally the ad was also overly edgy, which is off-brand for Apple. As noted elsewhere, it felt like a video game commercial from the '90s: gratuitous in its attention-seeking.

https://twitter.com/cuniiform/status/1788013085392859171

And it's actually already been done before, by Nintendo:

https://twitter.com/rsnous/status/1788047377556791321

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzAo9HzOgtQ

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#28
Missing from this extremely short and underreported article is how badly this played out in Japanese market. The culture they have states that musical instruments, creative tools have some energy and imbued sense of spirit to them. So destroying these elements of culture is really really blunt and gauche to them. The majority of the push back came from Japanese people, and then artists empathizing with their sentiment.

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#29

Uh what’s the problem? The ad isn’t great, but why the pitchforks?

A lot of people have strong emotional connections to their artistic tools like instruments. It's a very common reaction to feel discomfort at the sight of an instrument being destroyed. Emotional attachments are irrational, but the point of an advertisement isn't to be rational otherwise they'd just show a spec sheet as a still in a video.

It was an entire room in a press. I didn’t even notice an instrument…
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